"Good morning, Marceli-"
"Sorry! So sorry I'm late. My alarm wasn't set and I don't even remember falling asleep last night." She couldn't explain herself well even if she wanted to. And she really wanted to, but she really couldn't find the words to explain how she had somehow lost track of a whole fourteen hours. So she just struggled.
Thankfully, her boss, Paul Butler, cut off her mind's futile toiling before it could get out of hand. "That's really quite alright. Please join me shortly, say, in about an hour after you've gotten settled and had breakfast." He said kindly, eyes twinkling knowingly, warmly. "I've been informed that the Glacier Art Gallery has had some ancient Chinese art pieces delivered over the weekend and I'd like to get your take on them." He smiled at her, eyes briefly crinkling over his spectacles, before reaching across his desk to unravel another peppermint starlight and pop it into his mouth.
The man had quite the sweet tooth to be good for his age. She didn't know exactly how old he was but guessed he was somewhere up there judging by the gray generously peppered into his faded blonde hair and all the creases on his face. Of course, she also considered that perhaps all the years of working towards his Nobel prize no doubt played a role in fading the man's skin as well.
"Marceline?"
Her gaze snapped from staring at nowhere in particular to meet his raised eyebrows. "Huh? Oh yeah, thank you." She smiled wanly at him before spinning on her heels. Something really had to be done about all this spacing out she'd been doing as of late.
The rumble in her gut told her not to put mind to it at the moment.
Her office, located inside Paul's hillside mansion, had just about as much square footage as her apartment except with a more elegant open style floor plan and sumptuous feel. Deep cherry wood floors with matching furnishings. A grand L shaped desk that could easily sit a couple dozen bodies all around it, sat facing the double doors in which she'd just entered. Behind that were two very large sofas that reminded her of red velvet cake, complete with a white crystal coffee table. Behind that, was the backyard sized balcony overlooking the city with all of it's seating fit for hosting again, a couple dozen guests. She veered off to the left of the office toward the sparkly kitchenette. To the right would be the large bedroom-sized bathroom which contained a stone walled shower, mini pool sized in-ground bathtub, and everything else a fancy loo would have.
An hour for breakfast was really quite generous provided all of the amenities. Making her way up two flights of stairs to her office then cooking up and wolfing down a melty egg and cheese sandwich took her all of only fifteen minutes. She plopped down on the sofa but then winced at the sharp pain that resonated around the back of her skull. Oh yeah. That. What even was that? Through the rush of the past hour, she had forgotten about the headache she had woken up to and didn't feel it until she was finally allowed idle time for the first time that day.
This had better not be the flu she thought, silently scolding herself for her sometimes unkempt hand washing habits. She slid carefully off the sofa and decided to hunt down some immune boosters, vitamins or something. Despite her boss's retirement status, he held a massive lab in his mansion for a select few to use, handpicked aspiring science nerds. That might be a good place to find an antidote.
Marceline made her way up to the third floor where the lab was located. The hall leading to it's entrance was strewn with photos, newspaper clippings, and numerous certificates. It was a bit of a shame that the man didn't have a family to share all of his successes with.
BOOM.
From where the wall meets floor is where she ended up scrunched into, trying to gather sensory beyond the ringing in her ears and the pounding pulse that was competing with it. She looked around to see what had gotten blown to bits.
Through the muddle, she could swear the hallway got just a bit foggier. Before she had much time to question whether the reason things were becoming unclear was because she was passing out, the double doors of the lab entrance banged open and two coughing figures in white lab coats rushed out. Actually, one was rushing and the other looked like they were being roughly dragged by the other.
The two figures hurried towards where Marceline was squished against the wall, no doubt heading for the stairs. Quickly, she made haste to stand up, attempting to gain some look of composure. Before she could even make it upright, the leading figure grabbed her by her forearm without so much as a break in pace. Suddenly Marceline was being kept thoroughly off balance as she was being tugged through the hall and down the staircase. Even though she was struggling, she couldn't help but think it kind of funny that the person pulling her along was both the reason she might crack her skull tumbling down the stairs, and also the reason why she probably wouldn't.
All this moving around was rattling Marceline's head around too much. Eyes down, jaw clenched, and shoulders up around her ears was all she could do to brace for the steadily pounding waves of pain.
A short time later the marble flooring blurring below by the motions had come into focus. She looked up. They were standing outside of Paul's office. Her arm had finally been freed from it's hostage. She glanced around dubiously at the people she was silently accompanying. The figure that had been dragged as much as she was, was a round and friendly looking man with short wavy tufts of brown hair. The figure that might as well have had a leash attached to both of them was a red haired and worried looking woman. Marceline watched as the woman wrapped the door two times with her knuckles. Paul's voice muffled through, permitting access.
The woman pushed the door open and strode inside. Marceline wasn't sure on whether she were to follow but did so at a distance when the round man went through to stand in the sidelines behind the woman.
"Mr. Butler." The woman started.
"Please Bonnibel, I lack the taste for formalities. Just Paul is fine." He smiled warmly up at her and folded his hands together as if to indicate that that's all he wanted to say and that she could go on.
"Paul," She started again, voice tinged slightly with what Marceline guessed was mild irritation. "As you know, one of the projects I've been working on involves developing a sleep aid powerful enough to induce slumber within seconds." Bonnibel paused. Marceline could've sworn she saw her shoot an icy glance at the round man in the lab coat. She continued slowly. "A vial of the peel away spray I've also been working on, spilled into the sleep aid formula, and combusted." Paul's eyes widened. "There's no fire." Bonnibel followed quickly. "But I'm concerned about what hazardous gases we may have been exposed to." She reached into her lab coat pocket. "I have every step of our research and experiments recorded in this notebook. Would you be able to look at this and tell us if we may experience ill effects?"
"I'll certainly try." Paul said, taking the notebook that Bonnibel held out to him and started flipping through the pages. "I must say, I am very impressed with how meticulous you are." His features remained tense at the borders as his eyes scanned the pages fondly. After a few more pages, his gaze ceased roaming. He looked up and took a good hard look at them all. A shiny gray eyebrow raised when his eyes landed on Marceline. "Marceline, has this commotion managed to meet your quarters?"
"Er, I'm not sure, I was… loitering outside the lab, and then I heard something explode." Marceline felt anxiety threatening to balloon in her chest. "Thought the place was under attack or something." she mumbled. She wasn't sure why the fact that she ended up choosing to go to a place that she usually never thought to go to, at a comically troubled time no less, made her feel strangely out of alignment with herself.
The edges of Paul's features relaxed. "Ah, well, I conclude that if there were to be any ill effects, then there would be no doubt about it by now. The symptoms that occur from inhaling dire amounts of, well, most of these ingredients will have gradually taken effect almost immediately after consumption. Meaning all of you would be in ripe condition for a trip to the hospital before even having managed to reach my quarters." He paused to pop a starlight peppermint that he had unwrapped as he spoke into his mouth. "I daresay most of the fumes have dissipated by now but for good measures, I insist that you two join Marceline and I this morning for a trip to the Glacier Art Gallery."
Marceline could see the small crease that formed between Bonnibel's brows. "If you insist."
"Splendid. Everyone go on and grab your personal needs for the outing and meet outside in-" Paul considered the clock on the wall above the office's double doors. "Fifteen minutes. Oh and Marceline, I'm sure it unlikely that you would have found much sustenance at the lab so we shall make a stop at the dining establishment of your choosing." Marceline had already started creeping backwards and sideways towards the doors as he said all of this.
"No, It's fine, I made a sandwich earlier," Marceline said before slipping the rest of the way out the doors.